Little Cornwallis Island
| Little Cornwallis Island | ||
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| Waters | Arctic Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Queen Elizabeth Islands | |
| Geographical location | 75 ° 30 ′ N , 96 ° 30 ′ W | |
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| length | 36 km | |
| width | 32 km | |
| surface | 412 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 130 m | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
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Little Cornwallis Iceland is an uninhabited island in the Queen Elizabeth Islands in the Canadian territory of Nunavut . It's in McDougall Sound . It is separated from Cornwallis Island in the east by Pullen Strait and from Bathurst Island in the west by Crozier Strait . The island consists of two almost equal parts, which are connected by a narrow isthmus . Little Cornwallis Island has an area of 412 km². The highest peaks on the south-western as well as on the north-eastern part of the island reach a height of about 130 m.
Polaris mine
In the extreme south of Little Cornwallis Island is the Polaris Mine , the northernmost mine in the world, in which base metals were extracted. During the search for oil, zinc and lead deposits were discovered on the island in 1960 . Cominco acquired the area. In 1970 a severe gravity anomaly was identified. By 1973 the Polaris ore deposit had been explored and its size was estimated at 25 million tons of material consisting of 14% zinc and 4% lead. A conveyor was carried on a barge from Trois-Rivières to the island. It reached the island in mid-August 1981. Production began in 1982. A runway used by the Boeing 727 and Boeing 737 allowed air traffic to the mine. In August 2002, the ore deposit was largely exhausted and production was discontinued. Between 1982 and 2002, 21 million tons of ore were mined at an average grade of 3.72% lead and 15.81% zinc. From this, 733,800 tons of lead and 2.8 million tons of zinc were extracted.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Atlas of Canada - Sea Islands ( Memento from January 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)